Should the architect code?

OMG - not that question again! You can find it here and here and here and in many other places as well...

Well, I have to admit, very often I am inclined to say NO. This answer happens, when I am terribly busy:

• meeting prospects and agreeing proposals, scope etc.
• researching especially during the inception phase
• defining frame of the solution and PADs (project architect doc) during the elaboration
• agreeing and maintaining SLAs with other teams and groups

I guess, you have noticed the open ended bullet above. The discussions, persuasions, meetings with internal and external parties never end, while in construction or transition.

At the same time, I am a software developer. This is what I have been doing for ages. This is one of the main reasons, why I am in his industry. I simply love to see how software can simplify our lives, provide solutions to our problems and business needs.

My passion for the software, was born when I got with my fist computer - ZX Spectrum Plus. I went on exploring VB, Logo and ended with ZX80 Assembler. Then Delphi, SQL, UML, C++, Java, JavaScript, CAL and many more to come. All of that because I like to code, I like dealing with:

• the beautiful code
• the lean (== properly refactored) code
• the understandable and fluent code
• the efficient code
• the robust code

But all of this in balance with the incurred cost, always taking into account the concerns as raised in mythical man month

Thanks to this affection of mine, I draw my diagrams and write specs with more freedom, as hopefully I can:

• Notice what part of the proposed scope seems too ambitious for the proposed time scale
• Pick and choose the right third party libraries to be able to focus on the core of the problem
• Evaluate ideas first hand and find integration issues
• Shape SLAs to allow enough freedom for future evolution / extensibility
• Maintain SLAs to the advantage of the business and developers
• Discuss proposals in depth with the developers
• Propose new ways of solving the problems, what makes all the geeks within the team tick

I guess, now you know my answer to this question and know why I do constantly experiment with the code.
To avoid empty words, check these few code gadgets , my experiments which are available to the public domain
;)